Surprising Secrets from the Set of Little House on the Prairie

In her autobiography Prairie Tale, Melissa Gilbert shared that alcohol abuse was a daily issue during filming. She wrote that Michael Landon and several crew members regularly drank on set, sometimes starting early in the day and continuing through long shooting hours.

The atmosphere made heavy drinking seem normal, even during intense production schedules. Gilbert later reflected that, as a young actress, she hadn’t fully understood how unhealthy that behavior was — especially given the show’s wholesome, family-friendly image on screen.